Talked with a neighbor about tool library late fees and now I'm totally flipped on the idea

I always thought charging late fees for tool returns would just annoy people and drive them away. But after chatting with Maria who runs the one in our area, she showed me their numbers. They had 40% of tools coming back late when there was no fee, and that dropped to 8% after they added a 2 dollar per day charge. She said the money goes right back into buying new drill bits and replacement blades too. Has anyone else seen this kind of turnaround in their local tool library?

2 comments

2 Comments

abby6983d ago

Wait, 50 cents an hour?? So if you keep the table saw a week late that's like 84 bucks in fees? @drew805 that sounds intense but I guess it works since they bought a planer with it. Our local one charges per day not per hour, but Maria told me they still got people complaining even at 2 bucks a day. I wonder if the per hour thing makes people freak out more and rush stuff back faster.

drew8053d ago

Nah man my buddy Dave told me a similar story about the one down in Portland. He was all against late fees too until he saw how many people were just hoarding the table saw for weeks at a time. Now they charge 50 cents an hour after the due date and he said the turnover is way better plus they got a new planer with the cash. Something about a little pain in the wallet just makes people respect the return time.